An Unexpected Friendship: A Naruto Fanfic
by Lover of Stories 24
Summary: Sasuke's clan has just been killed, & Itachi vanished without a trace. Sasuke is taken to Woodgreen Orphanage, where he stumbles across...an unexpected friendship.
1. Part 1

**Author's Notes:** Chapter 1 of my new story, An Unexpected Friendship. Sorry if it seems too short. (Obviously I do not own Naruto, or this would not be a FANFIC.) Please Read and Review!! :D

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The small raven-haired boy stretched hazily, letting out a yawn as he slowly parted from his dreams. The cold, crisp air bathed his skin, sending a shiver running down his back. Wait...why was it cold? His eyes snapped open quickly, adjusting to the glare of the sunlight. He was startled to find that he was sitting inside of a rickety little carriage being drawn forward to the clip-clop of horses' hooves, instead of in his bed. What was going on? His two suitcases knocked against his side with the motion of the carriage. Then his memories rushed back to him in a flash, nearly bowling him over.

Blood. Parents. Dead. Clan. Lost. Itachi. Screams. Gone. Nothing... Nothing. Emptiness.

Sasuke gasped, his head reeling from the shock of seeing his parents' death replay in his brain. He shuddered, wrapping his arms around himself for warmth. It wasn't fair. He didn't want to live at a stupid orphanage, watched over by people he didn't know, inspected like an animal by strangers considering adoption. A sudden burst of hatred rose up in his stomach, clouding his thinking. Itachi...Itachi would pay. Somehow, he would have his revenge. Even if it cost him his life. With that thought firmly planted inside his mind, he decided that from that moment onward, he would do all that he could to become stronger.

His father, had he been still alive, would have said to step back and let the ANBU handle it. After all, there was no point in throwing life away to try to change something that was already done. Killing Itachi wouldn't do anything to bring the clan back from the dead. But these seemed like trivial details, and the boy was far past the point of caring about them.

Sasuke realized that they had stopped moving. A hand reached out hesitantly and took his, assisting him out of the carriage. It felt limp and cold in his own, like the person it belonged to was reluctant to touch him. That was understandable, especially considering the situation, but it didn't stop Sasuke from resenting it. He stepped off the footplate, belongings held by his free hand, and down through the empty air. His feet landed solidly on the ground, and he immediately jerked his hand away. Seeing as the footman clearly did not enjoy the concept of coming into contact with him, there was no reason to prolong the experience.

Seemingly startled, the footman blinked, then relaxed slightly. "Sir," he began in a clipped voice. "We have just arrived at our destination."

"Obviously," Sasuke muttered under his breath, wondering at the man's apparent abilities to state what was in plain sight.

"My name is Okhirre, and it is in my greatest hopes that you will enjoy your stay here at Woodgreen Orphanage. It was in your parents' wishes that you would come here if they became unable to care for you..."

At that point, Sasuke stopped listening and simply headed for the front door of the white-washed building, pausing along the way to catch his breath while he adjusted his grip on the too-heavy suitcases. His escort hurried after him, looking rather peeved, though he didn't say anything about it. Okhirre shouldered the Uchiha's luggage with a grunt and pushed open the door, then walked down a little corridor, at the end of which he rapped on the door to what looked like an office.

The door was instantly answered by a lady with curly red hair and a pair of neatly polished glasses perching on the tip of her nose, her lips creasing in a welcoming smile that looked as if she had been trained especially to perform it. On the front of her sweater was a nametag which read -Moriyeta Ranfiten.- "Hello, welcome to Woodgreen Orphanage!" she said rather cheerily, ushering them inside and motioning at the row of chairs against the back wall before sitting in a chair on wheels behind her desk. "Please, take a seat. How may I help you?"

"By bringing my clan back," Sasuke said sarcastically, but his voice was too low for the other two to hear him.

"This is Sasuke...Uchiha Sasuke," Okhirre told the overly-friendly receptionist, motioning to the boy in the chair next to his. "He should be on your list of new arrivals."

She flipped through a thick stack of papers on her clipboard, pulled out a paper, and ran her eyes over it for several seconds before seeming to have found what she was looking for. "Ah," she said, making a checkmark on the page with a ballpoint pen and scribbling a stream of additional notes. "Yes, here it is...Uchiha Sasuke. You are expected in Room K2, on Floor Three."

Okhirre eyed the long flight of stairs to the next floor with some apprehension. "Erm...there wouldn't happen to be an elevator, now would there?"

"You don't have to come," Sasuke said hastily.

"Yes, I do," Okhirre argued, jerking the suitcases out of reach.

"Actually, we do have an elevator," Ranfiten informed them quickly, pointing down the hall. "Of course, it's for visitors only. The children never use it; they learn to get used to the stairs." She flashed them another smile and a little wave, which was their cue to scram.

The two plodded down the hallway, each carrying a suitcase - Okhirre had been too tired out from carrying them to argue. They reached the elevator, and Sasuke hit the little red button on the wall that made the doors to it slide open.


	2. Part 2

"Go away! We don't want you at this orphanage!"

"Yeah! This place is crowded enough as it is!"

The boy was silent, letting their words wash over him without much effect. He was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to get inside. Okhirre had been trying to force the door open for quite some time now, but apparently whoever was in there was able to hold him back. The man was finally able to break through the line of defence, knocking a group of angry children across the room in the process. And they were inside the room.

It was much bigger than it had looked from the outside. Lined against the walls were eighteen little beds, each with something plopped on top of it to show that it was already taken. There was a window on one side, which looked out over a garden. Backed against a wall was a wooden bookshelf stacked with books, most with the covers ripped off and the pages scribbled on. Sasuke gave a start of surprise when several of the children stared at him with wide eyes and charged like madmen. His arms flew up in defense, but it was to no avail. Soon they had rushed upon him...

"Ack!!" Sasuke gasped, eyes bugging out. "GET...OFF!! Why...are you freaks...hugging me!?" He was practically buried in a mountain of children around his age who, from what he could observe, had no respect for things such as personal boundaries.

"Aww, he's so cute!" a tiny girl with a black ponytail squealed, jumping on top of him. "Hi, I'm Tola!" She was so little that it was hard to believe she could produce such a loud sound.

Okhirre harrumphed pompously, deciding it was time for him to leave Sasuke to his fate. "Well...er...I'll be going now... If you need me, you can call me or drop me an e-mail," he said, slipping an index card with his contact information into one of Sasuke's suitcases. "Ta-ta!"

"Hey, wait! Can't you tell them to get off?" Sasuke yelled, trying to escape from being smothered in a sea of human bodies.

"Whatever for? They'd probably just latch on again once I left!" With that, Okhirre had disappeared out the door.

Sasuke groaned; it was going to be a long day. "Um...where do I sleep?" He found out a second later that he really shouldn't have asked. "...I'm not sharing a bed! I'd rather sleep on the floor...FREAKS!"

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The children of Room K2 filed in through the doorway to the dining hall, where they were to have a lunch of pasta and salad.

"Sasu-kun! Sit next to me!" Tola ordered, grabbing two chairs.

"No, me!"

"He likes me, right, Sasu-kun?"

"I don't like any of you," he snapped, and quickly dragged a chair away from the table into a corner. Soon more than half the table was missing chairs, which were moved by his admirers to surround the victim of their attentions.

Sasuke banged his head against the wall. Could he have been assigned to a worse room? He sincerely doubted it. Before the annihilation of his clan, he had hated not getting enough attention. His dad was always busy working, and seemed only to care about Itachi. He had always been trapped in Itachi's shadow, following less deftly in Itachi's footsteps, never his own person. His mom had time for him sometimes, but she also had a lot of things to do, and anyways, he couldn't expect her to understand how he felt. Itachi was the one he had always thought he could count on to understand him. His older brother had stood up for him a couple times, but he was always so cold and distant. No, Itachi had never had time for him either, and was always flicking him on the forehead, saying maybe some other time. Of course, killing the clan had been the worst thing that teme had done...so far.

Well, he knew better now. Not getting any attention was bliss compared to getting too much. Here, his every move was watched, and he couldn't go anywhere without being surrounded by blundering idiots. Sasu-kun this and Sasu-kun that...he was getting fed up with their incessant babbling.

"Sasu-kun--"

"SHUT UP!" he growled, glaring daggers at the lot of them. "My name's not 'Sasu-kun'! That's it...I can't take this anymore! I want to transfer to a new room!" He abruptly left, only to be trailed by a cluster of stalkers. "Stop following me!" Of course, no one listened to him.

He managed to lose them by jumping down the staircases, which was an easy feat for him, but caused those of them who tried it to fall down the steps and knock themselves out. Once he reached the corridor he'd gone through last time, he threw open the door and ran in.

The receptionist looked up at him from reading her book, which she quickly shoved under a stack of papers, though not quickly enough to keep him from seeing the title: Icha Icha Paradise. "Oh, hello again," she said, smiling her plastic smile again. "I didn't expect you to come back so soon...what do you want?"

"Please," Sasuke begged, making puppy eyes that would have made any decent fangirl either pass out or squeal loud enough to deafen everyone within a two mile radius, most likely the latter. "You have to transfer me to a different room."

"Why?" Ranfiten demanded, her smile vanishing as she glared at him. "I hope, for your sake, that you're not wasting my time, Mr. Uchiha."

"There's--there's--stalkers!" he burst out, unable to hold it in any longer. "I have to get away from them, please! Fangirls and fanboys and...freaks!"

"Oh my," she said dryly, not concerned in the least. "Have they attempted to cause your death?"

"Well...no...but..."

"Not that I accept bribes, but... do you have money?"

"No..."

"Sorry then, no can do. Once we assign you a room, we stick to it. If we let you switch rooms for no good reason, everyone else would want to switch rooms, too. Now, we can't have that, can we? So if you have a problem with the people in your room, deal with it. Find some way to work it out. Thank you, have a nice day..." She gestured towards the door. "NEXT!"

Sasuke glowered, his eyes smoldering darkly. "This bites," he muttered as he left her office, his shoulder colliding with the next person who had come to see her. Trying to be inconspicuous and blend in with the crowd, he headed off to find some place of refuge where he could hide. He breathed in relief after managing to narrowly avoid several close shaves with his stalker fangirls.

If he never saw one of those fangirls again, it would still be too soon. Of course, hard as it was to believe, there was such a thing as worse than a fangirl. And that was a fanboy. His fanboys were just as intelligent and intent on stalking him as his fangirls, but they could follow him where the fangirls could not: into the boys' bathroom. He shuddered at the memory.

"It's Sasu-kun!" someone screamed, pointing, and instantly the peaceful crowd transformed into a stampede of maniacs who displayed no signs of sanity. So it wasn't just his room, after all - there were far too many of them. Some looked old enough to have their own jobs already, actually. He was just a little kid; what were they, child molesters?

Cursing his having inherited the Uchihas' legendary good looks, Sasuke ran like all Hell was at his heels. And, perhaps, it was.

**Author's Notes:**

Naruto doesn't belong to me.

Sasuke: Obviously.

Me: Um...yah...I know the story seems a little...

Sasuke: ...

Neji: I believe the word you are looking for is 'weird.'

Me: Thank you...Hey, where did you come from? You haven't even appeared in this story yet! 0.o Well... Anyways, sorry for the weirdness. And yes, that was an allusion to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. (Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!) I actually do have a plan for where this story will go, strange as it seems. And thanks for reading! Unless you're just reading the author notes, instead of the actual thing...In which case...Sasuke-kun, make them read it!

Sasuke: -unmoved- Hn.


End file.
